Credit Card Risk Scores

The credit card risk scores are risk factor scores that indicate the risk associated specifically with the credit card inputs only. There are credit card risk scores for:

• the issuing bank or institution (IIN),
• security code verification (CVV),
• and address verification (AVS).

These risk factor scores will only be returned if you are passing the relevant credit card inputs, and are only returned in minFraud Factors queries.

Like all risk factor scores, the credit card risk scores are given as a percentage ranging from 0.01 to 99. For example, an IIN risk score of 24.60 means that the transaction has a 24.6% chance of being fraudulent based on the issuer ID number of the credit card alone.

If you're using credit card risk scores for manual review, you may also find it helpful to consult the credit card risk data to give you a better picture of the transaction. Learn more about credit card risk data.

IIN risk score

The IIN risk score is the risk associated with the issuing bank of the credit card alone.

A higher IIN risk score would indicate that transactions with cards issued from this particular bank are riskier for your account. The IIN risk may also be tied to the specific shopID associated with the transaction, if you are reselling the minFraud service. The IIN risk score may also be higher if there's a discrepancy between the location of the issuing bank and the billing address.

If you see a higher IIN risk score, you may want to see whether there is a trend of fraud associated with cards from this particular issuing bank in your transaction history.

The IIN risk score may be returned when you pass the issuer ID number as an input to minFraud Factors. Read the API specification for the issuer ID number input on our developer portal:

• /credit_card/issuer_id_number

CVV risk score

The CVV risk score is the risk associated with the result of the card verification value code provided by your payment processor alone. Learn more about card verification values on Wikipedia.

A higher CVV risk score would usually indicate that a customer did not have, or mistyped, the card verification value from their credit card.

This could mean that a customer is using a stolen credit card number and doesn't have access to the security number printed on the card, or it could be a simple typo. If the CVV risk score is higher than you expect, you can attempt to verify the results with the issuing bank, or verify the value entered with the customer.

The CVV risk score may be returned when you pass the card verification value code provided by your payment processor as an input to minFraud Factors. Read the API specification for the card verification value input on our developer portal:

• /credit_card/cvv_result

AVS risk score

The AVS risk score is the risk associated with the result of the address verification system code provided by your payment processor alone. Learn more about address verification systems on Wikipedia.

A higher AVS risk score would usually indicate that a customer did not have, or mistyped, the billing address associated with the credit card used for the transaction.

This could mean that a customer is using a stolen credit card number and doesn't have access to the billing address, or it could be a typo. If the AVS risk score is higher than you expect, you can see if the billing address appears to have a typo or is otherwise consistent with a history of good use from your customer. You could also attempt to verify the results with the issuing bank.

The AVS risk score may be returned when you pass the address verification system code provided by your payment processor as an input to minFraud Factors. Read the API specification for the address verification system input on our developer portal:

• /credit_card/avs_result